As the league year and free agency began, the Denver tenures of two Broncos starters ended.
Wide receiver Javon Walker and weakside linebacker Ian Gold were both released on Friday afternoon, one day shy of two months after a frustrating 2007 season that saw both grapple with knee injuries.
BRONCOS TV: MASON ON WALKER, GOLD:
Gold’s injury sidelined him for most of the Week 15 loss at Houston and all of the last two games, during which Jamie Winborn took his place. Walker, meanwhile, finished the season on the field — with two receptions in each of the final three games — but knee problems took their toll, necessitating surgery on Oct. 19 and a recovery that limited him to spot duty upon his return to the field over a month later.
Walker seemed to foretell the future the day after the regular-season finale, when he said “No,” when asked whether he saw the team as a good fit for him.
“What it boils down to at this point is I’ve got to go where the best fit is for me,” he said during a rambling question-and-answer session that occasionally saw him lapse into the third person.
Javon Walker, Dec. 31, 2007:
“Wherever Javon’s talents can be used at, I’ve got to go to where the best fit’s for me.”
Microfracture surgery on the ailing knee is a possibility, Head Coach Mike Shanahan acknowledged at his season-ending press conference in January.
“There’s talk of a microfracture somewhere down the line,” Shanahan said then. “It could be two or three years from now; it could be four years. We just don’t know.”
Reports are also rampant that the Broncos have retained two of their unrestricted free agents — defensive end John Engelberger and tight end Nate Jackson.
Comment below.
Tags: Ian Gold, Javon Walker
So long Ian!
Hope you can keep helping opposing teams players up on your new team!
I called this before the season starter.
Yay!
Wow well thanks for letting us know Mason… I was reall thinking we might try and get a deal done with Javon, but if he isnt willing to work with us he can follow Ashle’s steps… That really worked well for him didnt it!
Bye Javon and Ian,
I think we all knew that Javon wasn’t coming back. I sure hope we make a push to get another good wide receiver who won’t mind playing behind Marshall. Maybe a speed guy.
Ian missed a lot of tackles this year and Winborn filled in really well. I still think we need another linebacker even just as a fill in spot for DJ, Nate, and Jamie. I think that if we go into the season with those three as our starters and maybe a veteran LB to fill in, we could have a big play line backing corps that doesn’t use up a lot of cap room.
Can anyone tell me why we kept Nate Jackson? It seems to me that we already have one good blocking TE in Daniel Graham and a good receiving tight end in Tony Scheffler. I’m glad we kept John though. He doesn’t make big plays a lot but he is always out there with strong effort.
Keep up the good work Mason. You rock!
I think it was a mistake to let Gold go but Walkers carrer is coming to an end slowly but surely just like Ashley Leile glad him and his big mouth are out of Denver
The way I thought of Nate Jackson last season before his injury was this … if something happened to Scheffler, then good old “Jack Nasty” could step in with, hopefully, a minimal drop-off, since his forte is pass-catching, as it is with Scheffler. It’s worth noting that Jackson has — to my eyes, at least — made palpable and consistent strides in his blocking since converting from wide receiver in 2005, and is a part of multiple special-teams units. The big issue for him is injuries; he’s had two seasons end on injured reserve (2004, 2007) and another in which he struggled with a hamstring injury almost from start to finish (2005).
thanks Mr.Mason, goodbye to the cancer known as javon best of luck wherever you go. ill miss ian cuz he was pretty good but getting old and hurt too much.
peace broncoland
shelbO
Baaaaad idea. We should have tried harder to trade walker so at least we’d get something out of the deal. And now we only have one good linebacker. At since missed out on Shaun Rodgers, our run defense will SUCK. If you think last year was bad, wait till this year. Unless we can get a great DT in the draft, we’re screwed.
damn i really liked gold. well now he have more problems. glad to see we are wasting time signing jackson. past few years hes been on IR. get on the phone shanny and bring in some players or were gonna go 1-16. and y the hell do the pats have easy season? who cares if they loose all those guys they still will win most of there games.
Its good to see both them go, One is a cry baby and the other just did not performe. Winborn will start next year, he impressed me in his starts this year. We need to trade for a DT, I see all that William, and Rogers are gone so we better get Stroud or Robertson. We really need a good veteran DT to mentor Marcus Thomas. Hopefully Shanny will pull the trigger and make a deal. If not we need to trade up and try to get Ellis or Dorsey.
Wow, We couldn’t get anything for Javon? Seems to me someone will pick him up. The raiders are a great retirement home for washed up has beens. Javon……Replace Porter.
dorsey is the next Courtney brown.
One other thing, We need to go after Gabril Wilson he is a solid safety and could really use his talent. Plus he is only 26 so he has years of good playing time infront of him!!!
Don’t Fear Broncoland – Our Defense sucked because of Bates “proven” scheme. With 2 shutdown corners we can be aggressive with 8 in the box – sure we’ll get burned a few times – but I think we’d get “rich” more often!!! I’m excited to see what Slowik puts together… We are also sitting pretty well for the draft – let’s stay away from the old washups with health/moral issues…
I am hoping the broncos can build their team with the talent on there now. Maybe free agency is overrated,
smithalltheway, Dorsey the next Courtney Brown, Ha ha ha that is the most stupid thing i have heard. This is a guy that really liked Gold when the guy has not done anything good for us in a couple of years and says we are going to go 1-16 will not good pick ups. Dorsey & Ellis are more likely to be the next Warren Sapps
its just sad that we didnt get anything, probly a trade out of those two,,but other teams would have second thoughts on trading for injured players,,
i really liked gold,,best of luck to ya,,
seems like most of the big names are gone in free agency,,i wonder who the Broncos can pull out…..
Broncos need: Speed receiver; DT; S; T; P; LB; RB?
Still have: 9 draft choices; College Free Agents post-draft.
Free agents seem slim-pickings right now for the money anyway.
I sure hope the Defense comes up with a PLAN all the coaches and players buy into and execute.
Yea, I know Gabril is visiting oakland today so hopefully he does not sign with them, that would suck. I also agree Bryant Johnson will be a good add, I know Arizona is trying to keep him but it looks like they will not be able to. As far as Robertson or Stroud, I dont care which one we get as long as they get one of them.
well, that’s the problem with assigning bonuses that are due before the draft to players like Javon with a history of being an injured crybaby. It makes it really hard to trade them before you have to cut them. I was a huge Ian Gold fan for a while, but after his ACL tear he was never as fast, and seeing as he has never actually been big or strong enough to play LB in the NFL, losing that speed really ended his effectiveness. I’ll miss Ian and I hope he can retire before he gets absolutely wrecked by this game. And for Javon’s sake, I hope he can find out what life would be like if he was on a team where is the ONLY receiving threat.
id take bryant johnson, just because berrian is prolly going to b a 49er and sign boos bailey and demmorio williams or just move winborn to weak, and sign gibril wilson. to bad ther aren’t any good DTs Left!
I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT JAVON…HE DIDNT DO ANYTHING LAST SEASON AND HE IS A BABY BKUZ HE IS INTIMIDATED BY MARSHALL…HE FEELS HE SHOULDNT COMPETE FOR THE NUMBER 1 SPOT N SINCE MARSHALL GAVE HIM SOME COMPETITION HE FELT THREATENED..I SAY GOOD WE RELEASED HIM HE DIDNT DO ANYTHING…AS FOR IAN HE WILL CONTINUE HIS LEGACY ELSEWHERE…TOO BAD IT WONT BE WITH US BUT HE WILL GO ON N FIND A STARTING POSITION WHERE HE IS NEEDED…I AINT WORRIED ABOUT HIM…HE WILL DO GREAT
Andrew – Any idea if either of these were designated as post June 1 transactions? Or are the Broncos taking the full salary cap hit this year? Thanks.
I don’t understand why he was released when he could have been traded. Even a 5th round draft pick would be better than nothing. It also seems apparent the the biggest problem the Bronco’s have this off season is finding Cap space. How much cap space is going to be used up by releasing him instead of trading him? It will haunt the Bronco’s for years to come!
Even though I hate to admit it. It seems that the Bronco’s really need a GM like the Chargers. A.J. Smith works the system. His system is the future of the NFL. He does not go after anybody in free agency and gets supplemental draft picks in return. So they always have a young talented team. We have to find a way to beat them. We need to draft like ’06 every year.
well i wouldnt mind boss but we really could have used gold. BRING BACK AL WISLON. how about that rod coleman does he still have anything in the tank? and get on the phone and bring stroud over here.
draft Kenny Philips!!!!!!
RSABronco – The cap hit is the same if a player is released, traded or retires.
Bring on the BOSS…Time to SHINE!!!
what about lang is he still a FA?
what do you guys think about signing Michael Turner?
i like it.
I think Walker’s getting a bad rap. I’m not disappointed that he’s moving on, or being moved on, but the guy had an absolutely horrible 2007. His first experience of the year was to have a great friend and teammate die in his arms. He followed that with a decent start to the year (17 catches at almost 13 yards a catch) followed by re-injury of the knee, a long recovery and then a tough time getting back into the swing of things. I can see where he’d have been frustrated, but lets not forget he gave it all on the field in 06, put up some good numbers on some huge plays and was a well liked guy. Again, I think we are better off at this point without him, and he’d be better off leaving all of this behind him. I definitely feel that his comments at the close of the season were unprofessional, but I don’t think this level of bashing is really fair to the guy. Put yourselves in his shoes for a minute. He was a standup guy in 06 and I’d personally prefer to remember him racking up 1000+ yards and more than a handful of nice TD’s along the way. Rather than for an emotionally painful, injury riddled, highly frustrated season such as 08.
Bigg, i don’t think we are good at RB. We have a pot-smoking, injury prone Travis Henry, and a decent but not great Selvin Young. I think he might do well given the chance, but he could have just had a lucky rookie year like Mike Bell. We need a second round RB (Felix Jones?) or a free agent like Turner or Julius Jones.
I don’t care who you are. Javon Walker is a gamer. I will always be grateful for the 2006 season and his dominating performance on opening day 2007 which saw Cutler convert two fourth down plays to win it at the end.
I wish Javon the best of luck and I hope he finally finds a long term home somewhere! Thanks for the memories man.
Gold, ditto…You were a good Bronco for many years!
so Mr. Mason or anybody else that would know, how much money will we save by the release of these two? or do we end up takin a salary cap hit?
Best of luck Ian and Jevon.
So the day goes by and we still have not done anything. All the good FA are getting signed. We needed a safety, Gabril Wilson signed with Oakland, Madieu Williams with the Vikings. We needed help no the O line, Faneca signed with the Jets. We did not trade for any DT, while we wait, Rogers goes to cincy and Jenkins goes to the Jets. The only good signing we made was Engelberger. We resigned Nate Jackson but how many TE does this team need, he was a little impressive last year but TE should not be a priority. We really need to resign Elam, Lynch and Ekuban. We really need help at LB. Hopefully we will sign Boss Bailey, he will give us some depth, maybe compete for a starting job. If we do not make at least one big signing or trade in FA we are looking at a mediocre 08 season. We can not fix everything throught the Draft.
Mason, why does this team not trade disgruntled/ underperforming players off instead of cutting them? Last year, we traded Bell and Foster away for Bly (which was possibly one of the most lopsided trades I have ever seen). I understand that a player may not be willing to play for a certain team and will hold out a la Darwin Walker, but why not negotiate with a team that wants their services and get ANYTHING for them? You can’t tell me the Redskins would not have been willing to send a 5th round choice for Walker and the Bills wouldn’t have been willing to deal out a 6th rounder for Gold. Now there is nothing besides the loss of high caliber players.
Are you kidding me about Gold??..How many times in the last 2 years have we seen an opposing tightend rumbling down the middle of the field wide open with Gold 2 steps behind?!..He was awful and had to go. I’m glad they didn’t go get the rogers deal done, let’s stick with thomas at dt and find something in the draft again.
Javon Walker is like the kid who takes his ball and goes home because he can’t be the pitcher anymore. Good riddance! It’s too bad we gave up a high draft choice for him and got zero in return. Seems like the same thing happened with Eddie Kennison.
As for Ian Gold, I liked him in the early years, but he didn’t play with much intensity last season–too many missed tackles and he was a big contributor to the Donkey Dung Defense Debacle.
I hope Shanahan and his cohorts can get it together and come up with a plan that works for an entire season. He did way too much tinkering and changing in mid-stream and the results were painfully apparent on Sundays.
Hope springs eternal in Bronco Land!
So long Gold you will be missed. Dont let the door hit you on the way out walker. Bring back 56, In Shanahan we trust!
The release of Ian Gold makes me sad. He was a great cover linebacker and a great leader on this team.
The release of Javon Walker makes me slightly sad. I wish the Broncos would have traded him to the cowboys. Still if it helps this team it gives us a better chance.
I believe that Javon Walker should have stayed. For the reason being that now look at who is left at WR. Marshall A+ Stokley B+ Smith ? see what will we do now? ian well he was just not performing at the level needed. walker while hurt. he did say that he didnt want to be hear though with a nice contract and then a good draft i believe we would have been set.
Great! Marshall & Martinez really came through last year, By Javon
& good luck
Well, with walker released I believe we should chek out randy moss knowing he is a free agent and we now need a first string wide reciever, and see how he works with us you know experiment. heck he may work.
Well, I am surprised we got rid of Walker. Despiste all the talk/rumors, I was hoping they would come to some agreement…..oh well. If he doesn’t want to play here than go somewhere else. Lelie made a bad descision because look where he would be if he stayed. Somehow I think Walker is going to regret this.
Hey Martinez, it your turn to really shine now. As far as Gold, I don’t have any problem with him so I wish him the best as well as Walker.
I think It’s bad for ya’ll to put Javon Walker down like that after what he has done for this team in 06 and I think he would have done the same in 07 if healthy!!! I agree with psymonkey 100%… Walker made some amazing big plays for us in 06 and to have gone through a devastating tragedy the beginning of 07, It’s very hard to deal with. This team was lucky and fortunate to have him on this team, but u can’t blame him… it is a running team!!! He deserves to be somewhere else. So I think the real haters and crybabies are on this post!!!! Much luck to Javon & Ian!!!
There are so many diferent areas that need attention on this team!! Please for the love of pete SOMEONE DRAFT PLAYERS WHO ARE YOUNG, TALENTED, CARE, WANT TO BE IN DENVER, AND CAN BRING BACK THE FEAR OPPOSING TEAMS HAD WHEN THEY CAME TO PLAY IN DENVER.
ian should stay